From Vivian Stockman, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

We’ve said it before, and sadly we have to say it again. The idea of converting coal into a liquid fuel is nuts. It’s the stuff of desperate regimes. (Hmmm.) The energy input versus energy output equation is dubious at best. The amount of water used to make one barrel of fuel from coal is nuts. Investing in any new major source of greenhouse gas is nuts. And government subsidies—not that any have been sought that we know of so farwell that would be uber nuts in this time of climate change.

One has to wonder, too, about the wisdom of giving a permit to Domestic Synthetic Fuels, headed by Kevin Whited. In 2016, another Whited-affiliated company, Green Kinetics Gateway LLC, promised to build a waste-to-energy project at a Maryland landfill. That project so far has gone nowhere, and MD officials are still trying to recoup a $250,000 loan to Whited’s company due a year ago.

Now Kevin Whited’s Domestic Synthetic Fuels is applying for an air permit as part of a scheme to build a toxic coal liquefaction plant along the Ohio River in Mason County, WV.

Come out for the air quality permit hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. at the Mason County Courthouse, 200 Sixth Street, Point Pleasant, WV, 25550.

Can’t come to the hearing? Please do submit comments by e-mail to DEP by the end of the hearing tomorrow night or better, by 6 p.m. to play it safe). Find all details you will need here. Learn more in this blog from OVEC organizer Alex Cole: For Sanity’s Sake: Come to a Hearing to Oppose Coal-to-Liquid Plant in Mason County.

Find the hearing on Facebook here and please do invite others to come out.